Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2021 Feb 28;21(1):206.
doi: 10.1186/s12885-021-07946-x.

Adverse reactions of targeted therapy in cancer patients: a retrospective study of hospital medical data in China

Ruofei Du #  1   2   3 , Xin Wang #  1 , Lixia Ma  4 , Leon M Larcher  5 , Han Tang  1 , Huiyue Zhou  1 , Changying Chen  6 , Tao Wang  7   8   9
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Adverse reactions of targeted therapy in cancer patients: a retrospective study of hospital medical data in China

Ruofei Du et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: The adverse reactions (ADRs) of targeted therapy were closely associated with treatment response, clinical outcome, quality of life (QoL) of patients with cancer. However, few studies presented the correlation between ADRs of targeted therapy and treatment effects among cancer patients. This study was to explore the characteristics of ADRs with targeted therapy and the prognosis of cancer patients based on the clinical data.

Methods: A retrospective secondary data analysis was conducted within an ADR data set including 2703 patients with targeted therapy from three Henan medical centers of China between January 2018 and December 2019. The significance was evaluated with chi-square test between groups with or without ADRs. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression with backward stepwise method were applied to assess the difference of pathological characteristics in patients with cancer. Using the univariate Cox regression method, the actuarial probability of overall survival was performed to compare the clinical outcomes between these two groups.

Results: A total of 485 patients were enrolled in this study. Of all patients, 61.0% (n = 296) occurred ADRs including skin damage, fatigue, mucosal damage, hypertension and gastrointestinal discomfort as the top 5 complications during the target therapy. And 62.1% of ADRs were mild to moderate, more than half of the ADRs occurred within one month, 68.6% ADRs lasted more than one month. Older patients (P = 0.022) and patients with lower education level (P = 0.036), more than 2 comorbidities (P = 0.021), longer medication time (P = 0.022), drug combination (P = 0.033) and intravenous administration (P = 0.019) were more likely to have ADRs. Those with ADRs were more likely to stop taking (P = 0.000), change (P = 0.000), adjust (P = 0.000), or not take the medicine on time (P = 0.000). The number of patients with recurrence (P = 0.000) and metastasis (P = 0.006) were statistically significant difference between ADRs and non-ADRs group. And the patients were significantly poor prognosis in ADRs groups compared with non-ADRs group.

Conclusion: The high incidence of ADRs would affect the treatment and prognosis of patients with cancer. We should pay more attention to these ADRs and develop effective management strategies.

Keywords: Adverse reactions; Cancer patients; Hospitalization; Quality of life; Targeted therapy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No conflict of interest has been declared by the authors.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Framework of research
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The flowchart of patient enrollment and exclusion
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Recurrence survival curve between patients with and without ADRs
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Metastasis survival curve between patients with and without ADRs
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Overall survival analysis between patients with and without ADRs
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bray F, Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Siegel RL, Lindsey S. Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. 2018;68(6):394–424. doi: 10.3322/caac.21492. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Yang D, Yang L, Bai C, Wang X, Powell CA. Epidemiology of lung cancer and lung cancer screening programs in China and the United States. Cancer Lett. 2020;468(5):82–87. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2019.10.009. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Estève J, Kricker F, Jacques MD. Facts and figures of Cancer in the European Community. Can J Neurol Sci. 2015;42(5):338–340. doi: 10.1017/cjn.2015.59. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barnes TA, Amir E, Templeton AJ, Gomez-Garcia S, Navarro B, Seruga B, et al. Efficacy, safety, tolerability and price of newly approved drugs in solid tumors. Cancer Treat Rev. 2017;56(5):1–7. doi: 10.1016/j.ctrv.2017.03.011. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wilkes GM. Targeted therapy attacking Cancer with molecular and immunological targeted agents. Asia Pac J Oncol Nurs. 2018;5(2):137–155. doi: 10.4103/apjon.apjon_79_17. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms